Roof rail



Nov. 27, 1951 J- N. WALTERS ROOF RAIL Filed Sept. 26, 1946 [MENTORPatented Nov. 27 1951 ROOF RAIL John Nugent Walters, New York, N. Y.;Rose P. Walters administratrix of said John Nugent Walters, deceasedApplication September 26, 1946, Serial No. 699,361

1 Claim. (01. 108-26) This invention relates to certain new. and usefulimprovements in roof rails and aims to effect comprehensive savings intime, and money by reducing the costs of labor and materials as well asto enhance, simplify and facilitate the joining of a water-tightpermanently locked roof to the walls of trailer-vans, trucks, busses,buildings and/ or the like.

-My invention comprehends a contrivance of novel design which may befabricated of metal or any other suitable materials of any thickness orgauge to any desired shape of any appropriate length and in any suitablemanner consistent with the intent and purposes of what is claimed and inaccordance with the spirit and scope thereof.

A principal feature of this invention, as will be readily perceived inthe accompanying drawing," resides in a longitudinally formed preferablymetal device provided with a series of perforations along the lowermarginal edge thereof to permit the attachment and fastening of saiddevice to the walls of a body under construction, the middle segment ofsaid device being aslotgrooved flange into which the pre-formed bentedge of a suitable roofing material is received and locked therein byhammering down or pressing down the upstanding curved bead segmentoverhanging said groove into overlapping engagement with said roofingmaterial thereby to achieve a water-tight permanently locked closure ofroofing and sides.

It is the principal object of this invention to provide a roof rail ofnovel character which will unite roofing materials to the walls ofstructures of the type described herein more economically than any othercontrivance of similar purpose heretofore existing, thereby to eliminatethe laborious skills and costly operations entailed in measure spacingand marking out thousands of individual holes in the understructure ofstuds, struts and cross-beams of each unit to be roofed and theindividual drilling of said thousands of holes; in addition thereto thesame spacing and marking out of thousands of holes and the same drillingof thousands of individual holes must be duplicated in the roofingmaterial itself; and again, thousands of holes must be similarly du'plicated in a finishing strip; said finishing. strip must then bepositioned on top of the also positioned framework holes and the roofingholes for riveting down; plus, the individual insertion of thousands ofrivets into the said holes, the individual squeezing or heading of thesaid thousands of rivets by two persons opposing each other; requiringin addition, thousands of rivets to attach each roof to a bodystructure. Heretofore, all of these foregoing laborious and costlyskills and actions have been necessary and required operations toachieve a water-tight and permanent closure in joining sheet roofing tothe walls of trailer-van bodies, trucks, busses and similarly roofedstructures. Thus, multiplying the foregoing actions by the thousands oftimes required for each unit under construction, it can be readilyunderstood-that my instant invention will very, substantially reduce thecost of roofing, as well as greatly invcreasethe productionof said typesof structures so sorely needed to advance the economic position of ournation. I

With-these and other objects andadvantages in view, which will becomeapparent as the de scription proceeds, thisinvention resides in certainpeculiar constructions, arrangements and combinations of the severalsegments thereof, as

hereinafter described and claimed, by means of .whichto accomplish thepurposes of said con .trivance. 1 Y

7 metal longitudinal device as shown in Figure 1 pre-formed bent edgesof the sheet roofing are I wherein for descriptive and illustrativepurposes the various segments of said device are identified byconsecutive reference characters in which I indicates the lower portionthereof; 2 indicates perforations spaced at suitable longitudinalintervals thereof to facilitate attachment of the said device to bodyframework and walls by means of rivets or bolts inserted therein andfastened; the character 3 indicates a flange running the entire lengthof the mid-portion of said device at right angle to the lower portionthereof, providing means to rest said device upon the body framework andwalls ,preparatoryfto attachment thereto the character 4 indicates aslot grooved into and along the upper longitudinal surface of saidflange by means of which the received and held preparatory to fixingtherein; the character 5 indicates the upstanding curved bead segmentoverhanging said slot-grooved flange, likewise running the entire lengthof the said device, by means of which, upon hammering down or pressingdown the said bead into overlapping engagement therewith, the sheetroofing 6 (shown in Figure 2) is thereby interlocked to achieve awater-tight permanent joining of the roofing to the body underconstruction. {is an alternative, without departing from thespiritand'scope or. my invention, saidshe'et roofing could be turnedupside down and interlocked with a slot grooved into the bead portioninstead of the flange of my device.

Figure 2, for illustrative purposes, denotes sheet roofing 8, the edgesof which have been bent or creased as indicated bythe character 1, beingplaced in hypothetical'working position between two roof rails facingeach other; as shown,

the edges 7 are ready to 1 .6 guided and lowered into the grooves 4 ofthe flanges 3, preparatory to attachment to the body under constructionto achieve a water-tight permanent roof.

j Figure 3denotes a completed roof in the final stage; the edges' l' or,sheet roofing s has been positioned into the grooves 401' thefianges '3and interlocked therein by hammering down or pressir'i'g down theupstanding curved bead segments 5 previously "overhanging saidgroovedflange's 3 into overlapping engagement With the said roof ngsheet 6, thereby accomplishing a water-tight 4 anyone who is able toread should be able to manufacture and apply this invention to achievethe purposes for which it is intended.

It can be readily perceived that my instant invention may be constructedfrom stock materials and machined to incorporate the peculiarly dei ne 1149 1? the @WiQ? could be cast inoidfd extruded or "otherwise'ffabricated if depermanent union of the roof with the walls of the bodyunder construction; As here represented I1 the roof ra ils'are deemed tohave been previously "attached to the walls of the body under con-'struction b'y'rivet'in'g oroth'er means, facilitated by theseries ofperforations '2 provided th'ereior in the lower marginal edgesthereofFrom the foregoing description in connection with the"a'ccompanyingdrawing the construction, operation and application of my improved roofrail will be apparent; thustheue's'ignjembodimentsand fabrication of myinventionhavi'ng been completely described inthe foregoingspecifications, includin'g'the' integral relationships of each componentelement 'to'the wholeth" e- 05, as well as the applications of the saidinven- Picn: s ia a it h ne a t e-es body portion having a dependingflange 'tli grooved to receive a flexible sheefof r ling sired;therefore it isto'be understood that the term of my inventionconstructed as described and disclosed herein is to be taken as thepreferred embodiment of the same, and that many changes may be made tovary the structure, form, shape, size and arrangement of the elementsand parts thereof without departing from the spirit of the invention orthe scope of the claim.

Having thus described my invention, I hereby apply for the fullprotection of my interest and title in said invention and to theexclusive ownership of said rights therein under the security of UnitedStates Letters Patentf' M i -I claim: Y A metal edge moulding for roofscomprising a adapted'to be attached to th'eedge' w'r'll of a 1 a flangeextending at right angles to said first named flange at the upperinnenedge' th "eo'f, the upper face of said second flange therein, andan upstanding cu'rvedbead p overhanging said groov'eand'oi such lengththat it may be bent mtcvenap'ping engag fie ttvgfth a roofing sheetreceived therein.

JOHN NUGENT wAL'rnas;

